On March 17th, we are partnering with our friends at Cross Pointe Church for the Dave Ramsey Simulcast. This is a great opportunity to once again hear from one of the leading experts on personal finances.

Tickets are $39 each and can be purchased online here: http://www.daveramsey.com/live/simulcast/

The event will be held in the worship auditorium at Cross Pointe.

Our hope is that each of us at Gwinnett Church would be on the pathway to financial freedom. This event is a great step in that direction.

See you there.

Jeff

Hey Gwinnett Church!

We wanted to take a moment and update you on the fun times our UpStreet and Transit kids have been having!

Two weeks ago 91 of our elementary aged kids along with their small group leaders descended on Dave & Buster’s and had a BLAST!! Here are a few pics to prove it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then last weekend, all five North Point Ministries’ Transit environments came together for Walking Wisely Weekend at North Point Community Church. Over 2500 Middle School students and 520 small group leaders stayed in host homes throughout Atlanta.  They spent the weekend learning and talking about character and what that looks like in the life of a middle schooler. WOW!!!

Fun fact-they had to order over 1000 pizzas…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for all that you do to make these environments possible for our students where they can grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Last time on the blog, we began a quick overview of our logo.  The Gwinnett Church Tree represents our mission and spiritual growth strategy.  For more information on that, please see the previous post.

Today, I want to list out the five smaller circles.  These circles represent the “Five Things that Grow Our Faith.” We did a series a few years ago on these five things.

1.  Practical Teaching.  We believe our faith grows when the Bible is taught in a practical manner allowing us to apply these principles to our lives.
2.  Personal Disciplines.  We believe our faith grows as we apply disciplines to our lives such as Bible study, prayer, fasting, etc.
3.  Pivotal Circumstances.  God uses circumstances as pivotal moments to grow our faith.
4.  Providential Relationships.  God brings people into our lives who encourage and stretch us in our faith.
5.  Personal Ministry.  We believe we are equipped to do great work for the Kingdom.  This kind of personal ministry helps shape our faith as well.

Of these five, there are really only three that we can do anything about:  Practical Teaching. Personal Disciplines and Personal Ministry.  The other two, Pivotal Circumstances and Providential Relationships, are out of our control to a large degree.  The point is to cooperate with God in all of these areas knowing that His desire is to grow our faith larger and larger in Him.

This is why, when it comes to our logo, we have a question we want everyone to think about when they see it.  That corresponding question is:
“Am I Growing?”

This should be a fundamental question for all of us who are a part of Gwinnett Church.  It’s our mission, to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  We’re serious about it.  We are excited about it.  We’re passionate it.

After all, we even created a logo about it.

I’m not sure a church really needs a logo.

That said, we have one and as you might have guessed I really like it.  We refer to our logo as the Gwinnett Church Tree.

The design credit goes to Benj Miller and Jen Odom of eyespeak along with our very own Kristen Franklin.

When we were working on the design we wanted the logo to represent our mission and spiritual growth strategy.  This is one of the many reasons I like what Benj, Jen and Kristen designed.

On our very first Sunday as a church, I explained the strategy and meaning behind our logo.  In fact, we have a question I would love for all of us to associate with the logo every time we see it.  (More on that tomorrow.)

With this in mind, I thought it would be helpful to reiterate this on the blog during the first month of a New Year. This logo represents what we should be about this year, and every year for that matter.

The Mission
The Tree represents our mission which is leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  The circles represent our spiritual growth strategy to help accomplish the mission.  As you can see, there are eight circles.  Three larger circles and five smaller ones. Today, I want to explain the three large circles and tomorrow I’ll explain the other five.

Three Vital Relationships
The three large circles represent our three vital relationships:

1. Intimacy with God.
2. Community with Insiders.
3.  Influence with Outsiders.

We believe each of us should be pursuing a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, experiencing accountability, belonging and care in small groups, and influencing those who are outside the family of God.  If we aren’t actively engaged in these three vital relationships, then we aren’t fully engaged in the mission of our church.

I’ve talked to a lot of people about these three vital relationships. My experience is that vital relationship #3 is the most difficult one for Christians to maintain.  Kind of interesting, huh?

How about you?  As you look back on 2011, which one of these three vital relationships was the strongest?  Which one was the weakest?  And what can you do to change that in 2012?

Jeff

As you may know, we are having our very own Gwinnett Church GroupLink on Friday, January 27 at 7:00pm at North Point Community Church and WE NEED YOU!!

In order to make this the best experience for all of your friends that have been waiting to get into a group, we need your help. Gwinnett Church needs 25 volunteers to help serve at GroupLink so if you are interested, please email me at info@gwinnettchurch.org.

Many of you already know how powerful life in circles can be and this is your opportunity to play a part in making sure your friends and family have the best chance possible to join a small group.

Thank you!

Kristen

PS- If you are interested in joining a group yourself, you can register and find out more information here: www.gwinnettchurch.org/grouplink